American Prisoners and their Linguistic Freedoms: Use of Metaphors to Survive

American Prisoners and their Linguistic Freedoms: Use of Metaphors to Survive

Adam Conigliaro

American prisoners are notably exceptional with their use of metaphors as a function for anti-language. However, because there is an inverse trend in metaphor comprehension and signs of impulsivity, we cannot fully conclude that metaphors strictly serve as an anti-language within the prisoner’s lexicon. Looking at the American Prisoner Writing Archive, an internet-based archive hosted through John Hopkins University, metaphor utilization in incarcerated people’s writings indicates emotional capacity to confront tough problems.  This supports the idea that prisoners are more likely to be reformed when they can comprehend metaphors and use them in their writings. In this paper, a report on how many times phrases were selected for metaphor use, which phrases were used, and a semantic analysis on how they were used is given to the reader. Utilizing basic dehumanizing metaphors, such as “monster”, “pig,” and, “rat”, we can see trends in which referential meaning is to be interpreted as lexical narrowing. By being able to narrow elusive phenomena, an American prisoner is then able to appropriately assign a referent to address within their mental capacity. Metaphor-use trends within the American prison population suggest that this principle is common within any prison population. Thus, it supports the reasons why language facilitation should be hosted within federal and state institutions.